Abstract [en]

Transit Objects

In the Master Essay I argue around two existing levels in the works presented at the graduation exhibition. On the one hand, it is about influence; on the other hand it is about the phenotypes of purpose-ness. In the introduction, I describe the relationship between the shapes that I have come to call Transit objects, and their on the one hand ideological superstructure; on the other hand, the different aspects of their shapes regarding the imitation I, in creating the objects, performed. In the case with the objects shape-aspects, I stand on the thoughts that I found during my bachelor's work, that is, to express the phenotypes of purpose-ness.

When it comes to influence, I speculate about how linguistics, and particularly a branch called neuro-linguistics, illustrates how the arguments that make up our world can be transformed. I use a meta-model and a conversation model as a tool to illustrate this. When I, like that, illustrate the plasticity of meaning, and cognition, I note Catherine Malabous taught (in her book What Should we do with our brain?) on the plasticity of the brain in relation to the neo-liberal systems of capitalism. She argues for how the brain has come to stand model for the organization of different types of networks. I hint the link to a future scenario where the desire to influence takes new forms and uses the latest brain research challenges, more specifically the use of ultrasound for the treatment of pain and other similar conditions. This also can be used as generating various types of seizures, pleasant or unpleasant. The next section in my text goes into the background of the artworks on display. I describe here my process. I also here describe the background to the proposal for public art in Gävle. Now follows a more detailed description of the series of works that I created during the Master's program. I begin with a description of the Phantom Objects 001-004, 2011, which basically is more linked to the bachelor's work. I describe this in the text because many of the aspects are still relevant in the series of works my master work consists of. Then I describe the EUR-pallet in Rosewood, 2011, presented at the graduation exhibition. EUR-pallet in Rosewood, is a work in which I shifted the scale of a Euro pallet to a scale of 1:2. In this way, it has moved into a “gray area” when it comes to its purpose. This is reinforced when the material is, unlike an ordinary Euro-pallet, here elevated to the veneer in Rosewood. I have "gilded" this very common design. EUR-pallets are included in global trade, or streams. They are durable and robust object with a distinct function. They are transit objects constantly in transit or waiting for new loads. I do these things manageable, further reified, and transparent. In this way, I open their innermost being and essence, the functional, and move it into a different light for a clearer sense of their mystery, clearer sense of their tangible presence and function in space and time. I give the shape a more open body language when the burden of function is eased. Which does not mean that the function is plundered, it is partially retained, inherent in the construction design, but stripped of its anonymity, strength and the standardized measure that makes it an effective part in a logistic machinery. Then I describe the work Billboard (STEALTH-monument for Joe Hill), 2012. This work is my proposal for public works in Gävle during the collaborative project between the Konstfack College of Arts and Gävle Art Centre (The collaboration is called Hello Gävle). It is presented as an advertising pillar, which measures approximately 15x30 centimetres (scale approx. 1:13) that I have sculpted and cast in aluminium. I emphasize this in Sweden common structure used for messages and announcements, and displaces the shapes purpose; I illustrate, unmask, isolate or "exalt" in this way it’s (in all its frivolity) concrete, concentrated form. In case of construction, the shape, in one copy, be at a scale of 1:1, that is about 3 meters tall and with each side about 1.3 meters wide. Then a description of the piece container, 2012. I saw a picture in a newspaper. I was dazed and said when I saw the picture, how beautiful it was the landscape of thousands of containers in different colours. For me there was something human and inhuman at the same time in that port. I do these constructions manageable, transparent and thus their enigmatic choreography and interior approaches me. Containers exist for transporting objects from different physical locations. The global circulation these constructions are organized in are well-planned and for an outsider hard to grasp. It is a diverse duplicated place where different actors meet and negotiate. Although there is something buried inside the container. It is ubiquitous, but at the same time exclusionary. This is almost the same inaccessibility as when it comes to the celestial bodies’ cyclical paths. Is there not something demanding, a form with such a clear function. A desire to be used in accordance with its intended context. As with the message, for example, from a billboard, it call to be understood in line with the context, but the global container flow are speaking without a sender. The clear bright colours. Red, blue, green, reminiscent of stained glass windows in churches. Are these containers, in fact, the holiest of places? One room, while at the same time thousands of rooms. The doors are opened and closed, and there is delivered a flood of heard prayers. One room, which in its variety is endless. A flexible place. A capitalist utopia. Next, a description of the work Carbon-bars, 2012. During the manufacturing process for Billboard (STEALTH-monument for Joe Hill), I made some experiences that made me interested in carbon as material in a future work. I imagined doing a variation of the billboard in coal. But after consideration and new experiences, I was aware of the bars. It was during my visit to the casting-industry where I saw the bars. Thereafter, the work was ready for fabrication The Carbon-bars are manufactured in an opposite logic than that of the EUR-pallet in Rosewood. Instead of "gild" the object I have here, "charcoaled" it, a form that can directly be read as being a bar. It is a paradoxical play with symbols of value. On the one hand the bar is generally associated with gold, on the other hand, the carbon for me associated with transience and uselessness without value. The human body consists of a number of kilograms of carbon. In the global economy, I am considering the "coin base" for a human. It seems in the banking crisis and its oil's wake consists of a 'charcoal-base", a "coal-human base." A man in the global market is priced for the weight in coal. In the final discussion I argue about my interpretation of the contemporary global flow of messages and objects in relation to Brian Holmes, Edward Bernays, Slavoy Zizek, Rosalyn Deutsche, Walter Lippman and Adam Curtis. From need to desire is a general explanation of how capitalism manages a market where basic needs are satisfied and hence, according to the logic of capitalism (but perhaps also human logic) new has to be created. Edward Bernay (who coined the term public relations as a euphemism for propaganda) was a genius when it came to this type of business: to create a "friendly arrangement” between the companies and the public. The amicable agreement Bernay talking about is, I think, in fact, the The Phantom Public Walter Lippman define. It's a public with the phenotypes of public working for a friendly agreement and arrangement between the consumers/ population and the profit hungry companies/ mafia. Brian Holmes points out Thomas Frank who argues that fashion designers and advertisers have their own existential interest in transforming the system, and that "… the result…” at least during the sixties, “…was a change of 'the ideology by which business explained its dominant position in national life"'. Here sounds Bernays amicable agreement again. An agreement continuously produced and as a result of the production is accompanied by Transit Objects.